The Queen has decided not to get involved in an ongoing campaign to keep a tea hut under its current management.

Bradley Melton, the owner of the tea hut in Fairmead Road, High Beech, has seen the lease for the hut put out to tender by The City of London Corporation.

Mr Melton’s family has run the business for 84 years and there is widespread opposition to the prospect of new management.

Brian Dean, of Hillyfields, Loughton, is one such supporter and wrote to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II last month asking her to intervene.

He wrote: “I would like to ask you to intervene in the decision to tender out the tea hut at High Beach and if at all possible to put the necessary pressure in the right place that can cause this comedy of errors to be overturned.”

A letter has now been received from the the Queen's senior correspondence officer.

She said that “Her Majesty has taken careful note of your concern.. [but]... this is not a matter in which The Queen would personally intervene”.

Mr Dean’s letter has now been sent to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, who is also MP for Brentwood and Ongar.

Fellow Essex MP Eleanor Laing and Enfield Southgate MP David Burrowes have already voiced their support for the campaign.

The corporation’s Epping Forest and Commons Committee will oversee the tender process and next meet on September 8.

The successful applicant will take up the lease in January.